It's a historic election. So it should be no surprise that election officials are expecting a historic voter turnout.

It's the first time in four decades that a sitting president or sitting vice president isn't on the ballot. After the results come in from the Nov. 4 election, either an African-American will be president or a woman will be vice president.

Some analysts have speculated that a sizable minority of white Democrats will never vote for an African-American for president. And some have speculated that conservatives disenchanted with moderate John McCain will stay home on Election Day.

But voter registration figures tell a different story.

Kalamazoo County Clerk Tim Snow said this week a record number of voters are registered for the November election -- 191,717, almost 8 percent more than in 2004, the last time a presidential election was conducted. He's predicting a voter turnout of around 70 percent or 75 percent. Turnout in the last presidential election was about 68 percent.

Although an avalanche of new registrations on local elections officials is no guarantee that all the newly registered will vote -- especially with so many new registrations coming from college students, who have traditionally voted in smaller percentages than their elders -- the surge of registrations is a pretty reliable indicator that this presidential election is cranking voter interest up to a level unseen for many, many years.

That's a wonderful thing.

For too many years, Americans have been skipping their Election Day opportunity to have a say in who will govern them. While people in new, hard-won democracies have risked their lives to stand for hours in line to vote, majorities of voters in the United States have largely ignored elections for local, state and national candidates and issues.

Perhaps it takes an era of extreme discontent with the direction the nation is heading -- and some historic choices at the top of each ticket -- to get voters revved up enough to plan to go to the polls.